Mstyslav Chernov

Mstyslav Chernov (Ukrainian: Мстислав Андрійович Чернов; born 1985) is a Ukrainian photographer, photojournalist, filmmaker, war correspondent and novelist known for his coverage of Ukrainian revolution, War in Donbass, including the downing of flight MH17, Syrian Civil War, Battle of Mosul in Iraq as well as for his diverse photography exhibitions. Chernov is an Associated Press journalist and the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF). Chernov’s materials have been published and aired by multiple news outlets worldwide, including CNN, BBC, The New York Times, Washington Post, and others. He has both won and been a finalist for prestigious awards, including the Livingston Award, Rory Peck Award and various Royal Television Society awards. Chernov has been wounded several times while working in conflict zones.

Fine-art and documentary photography: 2005—2013

Chernov started his career in photography in 2005, working for a local Kharkiv news agency MediaPort. He gained notoriety in 2008 when he received the 1st prize at a local photography exhibition "Kharkiv through the eyes of its inhabitants". In the same year, he had his first personal photography exhibition "Musica per somnia," conceived and organized with assistance of Yuriy Yanko, the Director of Kharkiv Philharmonic Society, who was impressed by Chernov's photographs of Sayaka Shoji, a Japanese violinist, then performing with Kharkiv Philarmonics. In 2009, Chernov won another first place award in local photo expo "Almost disappearing Kharkiv", covering crumbling examples of the city's older architecture.

Starting in 2008, Chernov worked with Chernobyl Children International, the Novick Cardiac Alliance, photographing cardiac surgeries. Chernov's transition to documentary photography continued. In 2012 he lived in Cambodia, focusing on local health care and cultural projects.

Meanwhile, by 2013, Chernov's work gained national recognition. His 2013 photographs landed him the first place in the Ukrainian contest "Photographer of the Year" in nomination documentary photography. In the same year, Chernov was a winner of the Pentax Awards Ukraine 2013 and Best Press Photographer, Ukraine, nomination "portrait". He photographed in over forty countries and had another personal exhibition, Rainy Season, featuring images of the Far East.

In 2013, Chernov became the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPF). Chernov's installation art project Peeking in Windows – placing enlarged old photographs into windows of abandoned buildings – gained the attention of the national press and was repeated in subsequent years. In 2013, Chernov was invited to participate in Unframe, an international project around documentary photography.

• Samples of Chernov's 2005—2013 photographs

• Zoloti Vorota subway station, Kyiv, 2007

• Street barber, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 2009

• Santa Maria di Loreto, Rome, Italy, 2009

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  Cigar Factory, Dominican Republic, 2011

• Sri Lankan fisherman, 2011

Journalism

In the summer of 2013, while photographing in Istanbul, Turkey, Chernov found himself in the middle of Gezi Park protests. The images of night violence impressed Chernov and triggered a shift from fine-art photography and documentary photography to conflict and war reporting.

• Chernov's photographs of Gezi Park Protests, Istambul, 2013

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  June 3, 2013

• June 5, 2013

• June 15, 2013

• June 15, 2013

• June 15, 2013

Euromaidan

In late 2013, Ukraine's capital Kyiv became embroiled in mass protests – "Euromaidan" which culminated in bloodshed, Ukrainian Revolution of 2014, and the ousting of the Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich. Chernov photographed the action as a MediaPort and Unframe correspondent. As violence intensified, he was attacked and wounded several times. In early December 2013, pro-Yanukovich police targeted and attacked members of the press, injuring Chernov's hand with a baton, tearing up his press credentials, and destroying his photography equipment. In January 2014, ignoring Chernov's insignia that identified him as a member of the press, a pro-Yanukovich policeman deliberately threw a stun grenade into Chernov, injuring his legs and eye with shrapnel.

The events in Kyiv attracted considerable international attention. Many international reporters flocked to cover the Ukrainian Revolution which later transitioned into the annexation of Crimea and War in Donbass. Chernov provided the international reporters with local assistance, also starting as a translator and a stringer for The Associated Press. Chernov's background in photography and his partnership with other reporters allowed him to polish his video filming skills and become a regular freelancer for Associated Press in May 2014.

• Chernov's photographs of Euromaidan, 2013—2014

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  Protesters, November 30, 2013

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  Berkut man pointing gut at protesters, January 19, 2014

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  January 22, 2014

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  February 18, 2014

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  Bodies of protesters, February 20, 2014

Career with Associated Press

By July 2014, Chernov already worked as an independent multi-format (text, photo, and video) journalist for The Associated Press. Russian military intervention to Donbass had created another conflict zone in Ukraine, and Chernov covered War in Donbass in 2014, becoming one of very few journalists who reported the conflict from both sides.

On his third day working as an independent AP journalist, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down in the area, and Chernov provided first images of the incident. Chernov's reporting played an essential role in The Associated Press' coverage of the event. For his coverage of the event, Chernov was awarded "Young Talent of the Year" Award by Royal Television Society.

In subsequent years as an AP journalist and war correspondent, Chernov covered the war in Syria and the Battle of Mosul in Iraq as well as the European migrant crisis in Greece, Macedonia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, and Germany. In 2017, in Mosul, a sniper bullet pierced through Chernov's camera and stuck in his ballistic vest. Chernov's Iraqi videos were finalist entries for Rory Peck Award in 2017 and for Royal Television Society awards in 2017 and 2018.

Chernov's reports were published worldwide, including being picked up by The Independent, The Seattle Times, Military Times, Navy Times, Washington Examiner, The Epoch Times. Chernov's photographs were also published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Dailymail, Le Monde, Deutsche Welle, Die Zeit, and others, and his videos were aired on BBC, EuroNews, CNN, Fox News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and others. In 2016, a Royal Television Society judge commented that "given the range, volume, and global distribution of [Chernov's] footage, there may have been days last year when we watched [Chernov's reporting] all day."

• Samples of Chernov's documentary photographs, 2015—2016

• Mourning of fighters, Donetsk, Ukraine, June 2015

• Syrian refugees in Hungary, September 2015

• The aftermath of Paris Terrorist Attacks, November 2015

• Mosul, Iraq, November 2016

• Mosul, Iraq, November 2016

Chernov's style

Outside observers note Chernov's deep compassion to humanity that makes his imagery influential. They also note the vast spectrum of his creative work and his "exceptional eye for detail."

A Ukrainian photographer and a photography exhibition curator in Kharkiv, Vladimir Ogloblin, commented on Chernov's work: "Mstyslav has exceptionally deep vision[sic] it's obvious that he feels for the people on his photographs. Mstyslav has a good intuition, a rare gift, how to convey in photographs what he sees."

The Director of the European news section of The Associated Press, Caro Kriel, said: "Through his involvement in some critical stories, Chernov has quickly proved himself to be a rare, multiformat journalist with an uncanny ability to develop a story in the most difficult conditions. He is a natural visual storyteller and his signature trait – compassion for humanity that suffuses almost every image – has ensured that his work has had an immediate impact."

A judge of Royal Television Society Awards commented that "[Chernov] has an exceptional eye for detail and a full range of shots across his portfolio, capturing emotion and conveying the fear and sometimes panic that was at the heart of so many news events last year"

Chernov himself believes that war should not be glamorized but pictured as is. Commenting on his own work, Chernov noted that he doesn't necessarily enjoys war journalism, but feels that he's at the right place, albeit his work might transition at some point to a different kind of photography, for example, to working for National Geographic.

Chernov prefers to work "light," carrying simpler, smaller equipment, that could always be on him and ready to shoot at all times. He works with small cameras and usually doesn't use a tripod.

In January 2020, Chernov presented his psychological novel Dreamtime (Ukrainian: Часи сновидінь), a 500-page fiction conceived and written over an 8-year period. Alluding to aboriginal Dreamtime, the novel examines societies' collective experiences ("dreams") with war and conflict and is loosely based on real events that Chernov witnessed during the War in Donbass, the Migration crisis in Europe and others. It features four intertwined plot lines that span across vast geography from Eastern Ukraine to Southern Europe, then to Southeast Asia, yet united by a common theme of internal conflict resolution. The novel was launched in Kyiv as a focal point of a video art exhibition devoted to the role of media in creating public collective experiences. The novel was credited for its creative literary application of dreams to showcase protagonists' psyches and for its "serious" and "masterly prose."